If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I used to be a pretty die hard morning exerciser. When I was working full time after college I always did morning workouts because I knew once I got home motivation kind of died; when I was doing prerequisites for school and working part time I stuck with the morning routine, and when I was in grad school I always met up with friends for morning workouts before class so I could focus on school work later in the day.
But then I started working at the hospital this summer for my dietetic internship. Start time? 7 a.m. Goodbye, morning workouts.
I’ve actually been able to settle into a pretty good evening workout routine this summer — and I’ve been enjoying it more than I thought I would. The key for me is workouts with other people to hold me accountable — either going to CrossFit Dupont with Matt, or my Tuesday night Lululemon run club, etc. It’s been kind of fun to end the day with a workout, not worrying about having to race home to get to work. But I have to say that when I’m driving to work in the early morning and I see runners outside enjoying the morning air… I’ve really missed it.
So — guess what I did this morning for the first time since moving back to DC? An early morning run!
And it was awesome. This week and last week the RD I’ve been working with at the hospital is one who comes in later and leaves later, so I’ve been going in closer to 8 or 8:30 instead of at 7. Since I’ve been in the routine of evening workouts I’ve just been enjoying the opportunity to sleep in a little (“sleep in” meaning until 6:30 — kind of sad I consider that sleeping in nowadays), but a few days ago me and Matt’s friend Thomas was talking about how he’s been getting into morning runs and asked if we wanted to join him for one. Sounded good to me! I love doing Crossfit at night, but running has been hard in this crazy heat. The morning air was just what I needed to get my running mojo back.
Matt had second thoughts on the whole thing when our alarm went off this morning (he’s NOT a morning person), so Thomas and I headed out on our own. It was a great workout and we chatted away the whole time so it flew by. Tom is also a really fast runner so it’s good motivation to speed up! This was slow for him but good for me, especially given we did a pretty hilly route.
Splits:
- Mile 1: 8:22
- Mile 2: 8:44
- Mile 3: 8:23
- Mile 4: 8:28
- Mile 5: 7:57 (!) — and this included the final 0.5 mile run home by myself — apparently I was moving!
Totals: 5.06 miles, 42:19 minutes, average pace of 8:22. Awesome workout! I’d forgotten how great it feels to have it be 7 a.m. and already have your workout out of the way.
And now, off to work — have a wonderful day, friends!
Are you a morning or evening exerciser? Why?
